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Book Review: Crazy Busy (Kevin DeYoung)

Several Sundays ago, despite never having heard the name Kevin DeYoung, I was delighted to see the bulletin announcement for our church’s January 2014 men’s leadership breakfast series. It detailed that we’d be using Kevin’s latest book, Crazy Busy, to help us broach a topic that precious few seem to know how to effectively. I thought, “Wow, this sounds perfect for our [busy] guys!” I was eager to purchase my copy from our assistant pastor, along with the study guide, and I’m about to complete my second read-through. Sinful busyness is a topic about which we need to be challenged and encouraged.

The book is divided into three sections: three dangers about busyness to avoid (chapter 2), seven diagnoses to consider for why you’re busy (chapters 3-9), and a conclusion that encourages believers to absolutely do one thing to get on the road to being biblically busy instead (chapter 10). After all, it’s not bad to be busy. But why you are is of utmost importance, because sinful busyness will inevitably tear you apart spiritually, emotionally, and physically. Crazy Busy can help you see your schedule differently. Each chapter is an easy read. You won’t necessarily relate to every issue Kevin tackles (chapter 6 is intended for parents), but every page contains comments that will challenge your mind and encourage you to reconsider the choices you’re making regarding your daily and weekly agendas.

The main reason Crazy Busy instantly drew me in is that Kevin doesn’t try to hide his own failures when it comes to how he’s had, and sometimes still has, a crazy busy life for the wrong reasons. From the onset, Kevin makes no bones about the fact that he wrote Crazy Busy especially for himself, and also as his best attempt to cause us to think about the biblical ramifications of being an unbiblically busy Christian. I always appreciate when Christian authors don’t act as though they’ve arrived regarding what they write about. He also never suggests to have composed Crazy Busy to be a magic bullet manual on how to cure sinful busyness. He’s not capable of that, and makes it clear immediately. In fact, he hilariously mocks one book in particular that tries to do just that. His well-timed, gentle sarcasm and jokes about being a laboring American Christian are a breath of fresh air to me. Often as I read through the 118 pages, I thought… “Wow, this guy is the real deal. He’s not afraid to just say what we often think but hesitate to verbalize or publish in writing for lame fear of being looked at funny or as though we had a mental disorder.”

Content-wise, Kevin does a wonderful job of putting the spotlight on just about every conceivable reason why a 21st-century western Christian would be unbiblically busy. Not everything of course, but the pertinent matters are there. Whether it’s wrestling through a gauntlet of pride manifestations, the sinister belief that all Christians must do everything, the critical concept of establishing and maintaining clear priorities, the dangers of technological addiction and dependence… Kevin has it covered. And there’s no way, if you’re wondering how to tame your own life, that you can read Crazy Busy without coming away with valuable wisdom. It actually reminds me of an adult Sunday School class I sat in at church a few years ago about I Corinthians. One hour in particular, our assistant pastor emphasized that every last thing we do must be Bible-based (I Corinthians 10:31), and Crazy Busy is another helpful extension of that study we shared, obviously in this case from the perspective of Kevin DeYoung.

What stuck out to me the most is how in chapter 5, DeYoung highlights a small portion of Mark 1 to explain how in spite of Jesus being God in the flesh, even He didn’t do everything He possibly could. I wouldn’t be surprised if Christians today (including myself) would criticize Jesus for that; His disciples did after all. But God gave Him a mission, and our Savior stuck to it. The reality is that no Christian is Christ, and the sooner that we realize that we can’t be…nor does God expect us to be, the better. Kevin does very well to explain how this truth applies to us in our sin-cursed daily living.

I’m looking forward to covering this book in my church’s Men’s Leadership Breakfast series. The accompanying study guide is available at the book’s website for free, and we’ll be using it for sure. We need to discuss what Kevin does about sinful busyness just as frankly, and encourage each other toward actual change! It’s exciting to anticipate how God’s grace will do this not just in each of us breakfast participants, but in every believer who reads Crazy Busy.